Hours before President Barack Obama addressed thousands at Lincoln High School in Denver on Tuesday afternoon to promote his American Jobs Act, Republican leaders at the state and national levels held a telephone news conference to assail the visit.

“The president is not really here because he’s concerned about jobs for Coloradans,” said state GOP chairman Ryan Call. “The president is really here to campaign in a crucial swing state because he is concerned about his own job.”

Call, who was joined in the phone conference by Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, said speeches by Obama don’t change the reality of what Call says are the president’s failed policies.

“Now, the president is using Denver to tout this second round of stimulus, this Stimulus 2.0, despite the fact that so many promises of the first stimulus have failed,” Call said.

Priebus noted that the president’s “pit stop in Denver . . . officially declared that the season of governing is over and now the campaign season is in full swing.”

In a statement about the visit, Rep. Mike Coffman, a Republican from Aurora, said Obama needs to stop campaigning about jobs and start working to create jobs.

Coffman said parts of the president’s $447 billion jobs plan have ideas with bipartisan support, such as passing free-trade agreements, lowering regulatory burdens on businesses and extending the payroll-tax cut.

“The rest of his plan resembles many of the failed economic policies of his administration where over $1 trillion has already been spent between the so-called stimulus bill, Cash for Clunkers, cash for caulkers, and his green-energy subsidies without any measurable impact on unemployment,” Coffman said.

At the speech, support for the president’s jobs plan was widespread.

“I thought the speech was fantastic. I just love how the president kept saying ‘Pass that bill,’ ” said Bianka Emerson of Denver, who is a registered Democrat.

Emerson said Obama’s jobs plan is a solid start on the path to fix the country’s stagnant jobs situation.

“It’s a push to get the economy started and up and running, so they definitely need to push the jobs plan and get it passed,” she said.

A native of Colorado, Kurtis Lee was a politics reporter for The Denver Post from February 2011 until July 2014. He graduated cum laude from Temple University in 2009 with a degree in journalism and political science. He previously worked as an online writer in Washington, D.C., for the PBS NewsHour.

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